The weird thing was all Walz and I also felt he was pretty much sidelined towards the end, despite being probably the most well-liked vice presidental candidate in recent times.

Having the richest man in the world and his propaganda network and Russian cyber warfare trolls in your pocket probably helped as well.

What have Canada and Mexico ever done to Russia?

Absolutely correct, and a great example of this is Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA or “brownshirts” and one of Hitler’s right hand men, who was pretty openly gay, but which was ignored and downplayed by Hitler himself. He was a Nazi first and gay second, as absurd as that sounds.